Maid-Rite (Iowa "sloppy joes")

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:

<<Sloppy joes (according to one web posting) have seven names in Iowa:

 Sloppy joe

 Maid Rite (After a chain of stores, but this sandwich does not have ketchup.
 It dates to the 1920s.  Not recorded by DARE or John Mariani.)

 Loosemeat sandwich (DARE has this from 1986?)

 Beef burger (Not in DARE.)

 Barbecue sandwich (Not in DARE.)

 Manwich (Not in DARE.)

 Tavern (Supposedly, Sioux City uses "tavern" instead of "sloppy joe.")>>

I grew up in eastern Iowa (1940-58 Cedar Rapids; 1958-1967 Iowa City) and
never heard any of these terms except Maid Rite, which was indeed just as
Barry describes it. There were at least two Maid-Rite diners in Cedar Rapids
when I was in high school, and my friends and I loved them. My mother tried
to duplicate the recipe at home, and we called the results "maidrites,"
though the flavor was never quite the same. My memory is that the folks in
the restaurant somehow steamed hamburger. The diner chain doesn't seem to be
in business any more, though, and I wonder if the term is still used.

The other term in the list that I have heard with specific reference to Iowa
is "loose-meat sandwiches," but that was on the televison program Roseanne.
The characters started a restaurant in the small Illinois town where they
lived that specialized in "loose-meat sandwiches," I believe--inspired by a
trip to Iowa.

One other Iowa sandwich that is somewhat regional is the pork tenderloin
sandwich, which consists of a boneless piece of pork pounded thin, breaded,
and deep-fat fried.